If Illawarra Shoalhaven Medicare Local stays, it will have a new name - and that doesn't bother chief executive Dianne Kitcher.

As part of Tuesday's budget, the ALP-created Medicare Locals will be revamped, including a name change to Primary Health Networks.

"We are not surprised by the name change nor are we particularly disappointed," Ms Kitcher said. "It's very confusing to the public, people were never sure whether they were supposed to come to us for services or come to us to claim their rebates."

Another change will be having Medicare Locals align with the existing health districts, which is already the case with Illawarra Shoalhaven. This could help the local branch remain as the Liberal government looks to reduce the number of primary health networks nationwide.

"They've said there will be fewer primary health networks," Ms Kitcher said. "At the moment, there are 61 Medicare Locals and they're saying there will be less but they haven't told us how much less. That's the next step for us, knowing how many there will be. As the week progresses, no doubt we will get some more information about that.

"At the moment, there are more Medicare Locals in NSW than there are local health districts. There are 15 local health districts and 17 Medicare Locals."

Regardless of the outcome, Ms Kitcher said she was pleased the federal government had chosen to retain a primary healthcare co-ordination network rather than scrapping the concept.

"At the end of the day, the key thing is they recognised the importance of primary healthcare to our system," she said.

"As someone who works in that space, that's the most fundamental thing. Primary healthcare is critically important to the entire system and the value and importance of that has been recognised."